Goal 4: The Great West and Rise of the Debtor

U.S. History

Overview

• In the 1800s, the United States gained a great deal of land. People started to move out West, hoping for a nice piece of land to call their own. Land and mineral rushes, land acts, and a railroad made good arguments for starting over in a new place. Americans embraced the westward movement.

Rushes

California Gold Rush

• In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. Over 40,000 prospectors came to California within the next two years. A few of them struck it rich, but most of them gave up looking for gold and set up farms and businesses in the area. Mining also became a big business in California, and people continued to move out West long after the Gold Rush was over.

Comstock Lode

• In 1859, a large silver deposit was found at Virginia City, Nevada. It was called the Comstock Lode, and many miners moved to Nevada to seek their fortunes in silver. The mining industry grew stronger in the West with this discovery.

Oklahoma Land Rush

• In 1889, the U.S. opened up homesteads in Oklahoma. People were not allowed to claim a homestead until April 22, 1889. On that day, a starting gun went off at noon, and people were allowed to claim a homestead in Oklahoma. Those who tried to beat the gun were called "Sooners." That is still the state's nickname.

Land Grants

Homestead Act• passed in 1862 by Congress. • let settlers claim up to 160 acres of surveyed

federal lands. • After living on and improving the land for five years,

homesteaders paid a small registration fee and got the title for the land. African Americans leaped at this opportunity to own their own land, and many moved out West.

• The act also allowed unmarried women age 21 and up to claim homesteads. This allowed women to become more independent and have more of an effect on the U.S. economy at the end of the 19th century.

• Irish immigrants, who had moved to the U.S. after a potato famine wiped out the major crop in Ireland in the 1840s, also went West because of the Homestead Act and the Oklahoma Land Rush.

Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

• With this act, the federal government gave each state 30,000 acres of federal land with which to establish colleges. This act expanded the availability of higher education in the U.S. to more than just the eastern part of the U.S.

Transcontinental Railroad

• The transcontinental railroad was the first railroad to connect the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, making travel out west easier and faster.

• The railroad was built from opposite ends; Central Pacific Railroad started building in California, and Union Pacific Railroad started in Nebraska.

• The two companies connected in Promontory Point, Utah.

Chinese Labor

• Many Chinese had immigrated to California for job opportunities, and Central Pacific Railroad hired Chinese immigrants to build the railroad. These immigrants were responsible for blasting through the Sierra Nevada mountains.

• After the completion of the railroad, however, Americans feared that Chinese workers were taking away their jobs. In 1882, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which officially prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S.

Mormons Out West

• The Mormons were a religious group formed by Joseph Smith in New York in 1830. In the 1830s and 1840s, the group faced increasing persecution in communities they established in New York, Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois. After Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844, Brigham Young became the new leader of the Mormon faith. In 1847, Young led a group of Mormons to Salt Lake Valley in Utah. There, the Mormons established Salt Lake City.

Life in the West

• In Texas, raising cattle became more and more common.

• The Chisholm Trail was one of many trails used to drive cattle up from Texas to the railroads. This trail ended in Abilene, Kansas, where the Kansas Pacific Railroad had a stockyard and depot since 1867. The cattle were then loaded onto railcars and shipped back east to meet the demand for beef in the Eastern U.S.

• The Great Plains were becoming more populated as people moved west.

• Some people stopped to live on the plains instead of continuing on to California or Oregon.

Sod Houses

• Because there were not many trees on the plains, settlers made sod houses. Sod houses are houses built using dirt, mud, and grass. The Great Plains had plenty of dirt and grass, which made sod a cheap building material.

• Sod kept the bad weather out and kept the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It became an important tool all along the plains. With the invention of barbed wire, settlers were able to protect their property by preventing cattle from coming on to their land.

Buffalo Soldiers

• A special group called the Buffalo Soldiers patrolled the American West after the Civil War. This group was made of all African American soldiers, and they were the first unit of their kind to be chartered during peacetime. They served as guards for wagon trains and helped develop western towns.

Bob Marley – “Buffalo Soldier”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5FCdx7Dn0o

Western Migration and Settlement

Introduction

• As more people in the United States moved westward, Native Americans suffered. They lost their land and were forced onto reservations. Native Americans living on the Great Plains lost their main source of food, shelter, and clothing as buffalo were almost hunted to extinction. Many Native Americans even lost their lives in battles against United States troops. In an attempt to assimilate Native Americans into American culture, Native American children were forced into American boarding schools.

Indians Appropriations Act

• In 1851, the U.S. government passed the Indians Appropriations Act, creating the first reservations for Native Americans. Native Americans fought against being forced onto the reservations. The U.S. government and the Native Americans fought a series of wars known as the American Indian Wars. The Native Americans then had to rely on the government for food and housing.

Sand Creek Massacre• The Sand Creek Massacre took place in

southeastern Colorado on November 29, 1864. • Colonel John Chivington attacked an encampment of

Cheyenne and Arapaho near Sand Creek. Chivington led this attack as an act of revenge against Native Americans who had attacked white settlers in the area.

• Because Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle had sent many of his men to hunt, there were few people who could defend the camp when it was attacked.

• The Native Americans put up a white flag to indicate surrender, but Chivington ignored this action. Between 150 and 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho were killed, including elderly men, women, and children.

Treaty of Fort Laramie• In 1868, the Lakota tribe and the U.S. government

signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie. • This treaty gave the Lakota ownership of the Black

Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming. In 1874, George Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills, and gold was discovered near what is now Custer, South Dakota. This started the Black Hills Gold Rush, and many people came to the area hoping to strike it rich.

• In 1876, the Homestake deposit was found, and the town of Deadwood was established. Thousands of miners were on the Native Americans' territory, disregarding the treaty.

• This increased the tension that existed between the United States and the Native Americans.

Battle of Little Big Horn

• Also known as Custer's Last Stand, this battle took place in 1876. It was one of the Native Americans' last victories over U.S. troops. Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led over 2,500 warriors against 264 U.S. troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer.

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

• The Nez Perce lived in Oregon. In the late 1870s, they were forced to move to Idaho. In 1877, Chief Joseph led a group of Nez Perce through Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, hoping to reach freedom in Canada.

• Less than 50 miles from the border, U.S. troops surrounded the group, and Chief Joseph surrendered.

Helen Hunt Jackson's Century of Dishonor

• In 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson published her book, A Century of Dishonor. In the book, Jackson details the injustices that the U.S. government inflicted upon the Native Americans.

• During its first 100 years as a country, the U.S. government broke treaties and forced Native Americans off their lands and onto reservations. Jackson's book brought attention to these inequities and influenced a reform movement in Native American policy.

Dawes Severalty Act• The Dawes Severalty Act was passed in 1887. • Under this act, the U.S. government broke up the

Native American reservations and gave Native American families homesteads.

• The families were required to live on the land for 25 years and were required to give up their Native American traditions.

• At the end of 25 years, the families would own the land and become U.S. citizens. As a result, Native Americans lost much of their land and were given land in the desert that was not good for farming.

Wounded Knee• In December of 1890, the last major armed conflict

between Native Americans and the U.S. took place on the Pine Ridge reservation.

• The conflict is known as the Battle of Wounded Knee or the Wounded Knee Massacre. It started after a warrior's gun accidentally went off while U.S. soldiers were collecting the Sioux's guns.

• In the chaos following the shot, soldiers and other warriors began to fire their guns, and many Native Americans began to flee. Both women and children were shot down as they ran to escape the fighting. By the time peace was restored, over 150 Native Americans were dead.

Ghost Dance• Prior to the massacre, the Lakota participated

in a spiritual ceremony called the "Ghost Dance." They believed that by doing so, their lost relatives would rejoin them, and the world that they had once experienced would be restored.

• This ceremony caused tension between white settlers and the Native Americans, and this tension was one of the causes for the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek.

• Defying the orders of the government agent at the reservation, the Lakota continued to perform a ritual called the Ghost Dance

Agricultural Revolution

Introduction

• In the 1800s, many inventions made farming and ranching more productive, but it also made them more expensive. Farmers went deeper into debt as railroad shipping and storing rates soared, and many farmers started political organizations. These organizations, like the Grange and the People's Party, called for the federal regulation of the railroad industry, a graduated income tax, and changes in U.S. monetary policy.

National Grange

http://newenglandwow.com/grangeseal2b.jpg

Munn v. Illinois

• In 1877 Supreme Court agreed with the Grange in the case of Munn v. Illinois, which declared state legislatures did have right to regulate businesses that involved the public interest.

Wabash v. Illinois

• In 1886 case of Wabash v. Illinois, the Court ruled that the federal government had power to regulate railroad traffic moving across state boundaries

• Led Congress to approve the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 (1st time that federal government had regulated an industry!)

Farmer’s Alliance

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~necedar/nfa.jpg

Populist Party

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Populist_Party_campaign_poster_1904.jpg/180px-Populist_Party_campaign_poster_1904.jpg

Industrial Tycoons

• John D. Rockefeller: to increase profits, practiced vertical and horizontal integration

• Vertical integration: acquired companies that supply to the business. Allows for owner to keep their costs low and profits high.

• Horizontal integration: taking over other companies that produce the same product.